Apple's iPhone 12 Pro may be a great smartphone, but it will likely face stiff competition from Samsung's Galaxy S21 And new leaks suggest a price drop for the upcoming Samsung flagship that could undercut Apple's high-end iPhone
The price of the Galaxy S21 series was revealed earlier in the day by Belgian mobile carrier Voo The company quickly removed the listing, but Twitter user jordan82 took a screenshot and posted it online, revealing the good news
The starting prices for the three models are €849, €1,049, and €1,399, respectively These versions come with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage for the Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus, and 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for the Galaxy S21 Ultra
Comparatively, the iPhone 12 Pro starts at €899 in Belgium, and if the leaked price is accurate, the base Galaxy S21 will be below that
This is made even more plausible by a report from ETNews, which notes that the starting price for the Galaxy S21 in Korea will be 990,000 won This is roughly $904, which is not only below the $999 US price of the iPhone 12 Pro, but also below the $999 launch price of the Galaxy S20
Converting these prices to dollars and pounds does not take into account regional price differences, so let's compare them to the Galaxy S20's Belgian price instead
The MSRPs of the Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra are €999, €1,099, and €1,399, respectively This indicates that Samsung may lower the prices of the new models as previously rumored, but only for the two cheaper models
On the Korean price front, the Galaxy S21 Plus is set at KRW 1,199,000, about $1,095 cheaper than the Galaxy S20 Plus at $1,199 These conversions are not exact and should be taken with a grain of salt, but they track previous rumors of price cuts for the Galaxy S21 Plus and S21 Plus
The price drop makes sense given that Samsung has dropped the display resolution and amount of RAM between the Galaxy S20 and S21 However, users will still get the powerful Snapdragon 888 processor, triple rear cameras, and 4,000 mAh or 4,800 mAh batteries
The top-of-the-line Galaxy S21 Ultra will be the only model with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage; the S21 Ultra is also expected to offer a sharper Quad HD display and dual telephoto lenses (3x and 10x)
Somewhat confusingly, the European price of the S21 Ultra leaked by Voo is higher than the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which starts at €1,349 However, the Korean price will be 145 million won, or about $1,324, which is cheaper than the S20 Ultra's price of 1595 million won, or $1,399
Regional differences may be at play here, and we have heard other reports that the S21 Ultra will be priced higher than the previous model, given that it will have even more premium features, including support for the S Pen, which follows the Galaxy Note series
Another leak reveals that the Galaxy S21 series will come in more color variations According to the source of the leak, Ishan Agarwal, these are post-launch options This means that they could be regional colors or colors that will be announced in the usual mini-refresh that Samsung does a few months after the launch of its flagship phones
The Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus will have one additional color, which Agarwal describes simply as "red"; the S21 Ultra will have three more options: blue, bronze, and titanium Bronze sounds particularly attractive, given the handsomeness of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra's Mystic Bronze version
What the Galaxy S21 lacks, however, is a charging brick in the box; Ice Universe confirmed this no doubt frustrating rumor on Twitter, seemingly inspired by Apple's recent decision to do the same with the iPhone 12 series The company has once again confirmed this undoubtedly frustrating rumor, apparently inspired by Apple's recent decision to do the same with the iPhone 12 series
There are compelling arguments for dropping the charger Manufacturing more chargers is bad for the environment, especially when many users likely already have functional chargers at home Also, the missing blocks in the Galaxy S21 may be the reason for the slightly lower price from the Galaxy S20
The downside of this approach is that users may feel they are being cheated out of a standard and important part of the new smartphone package Furthermore, the user may already have a compatible charger, but it may not be able to supply the specific wattage for fast charging the Galaxy S21
As of today, we are officially one week away from Samsung's January 14 event where the Galaxy S21 will debut If we get a chance to try it out, we will be reviewing the Galaxy S21 to determine if it deserves a spot on our Best Smartphones list
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